Waterproof carton for icing beverages



April 21, 1959 I L. P. WEINER 2,883,046

WATERPROOF CARTON FOR ICING BEVERAGES Filed Dec. 19, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jams 1. 121 2 122 2,883,046 WATERPROOF CARTON FOR ICING BEVERAGES Lewis P. Weiner, Milwaukee, Wis, assignor to Pabst Brewing Company, Peoria Heights, 111., a corporation of Delaware Application December 19, 1955, Serial No. 553,784 1 Claim. (Cl. 206-65) This invention relates to cartons and has more particular reference to improvements in paperboard cartons of the type in which case lots of bottled or canned beverages are shipped.

In general it is the purpose of this invention to provide a carton for bottled or canned beverages which is ideally suited for use at picnics or other outdoor functions where cooling of the beverage has always constituted a major problem.

At outdoor gatherings of this type it was customary in the past to provide a large open tank to hold a supply of ice, and the beverage containers were removed from their shipping cartons or cases and placed in the tank for cooling. Eventually, this resulted in the accumulation of a large quantity of water in the tank, frequently to a level a substantial distance above the tops of the beverage containers, and it obviously made selection of the beverage quite ditlicult, especially if the containers had been tipped over by the ice in the tank and lay on their sides in the bottom of the tank.

Also by reason of the fact that cooling tanks of this type were quite large, hauling of the tanks to and from a picnic site was apt to be a serious problem, and if no tanks were available, it was frequently necessary to improvise with wash tubs or other unsightly vessels.

It is the primary object of this invention, therefore, to provide a carton which affords a complete answer to these vexing problems of cooling canned or bottled beverages when conventional refrigerating apparatus is unavailable.

More specifically, it is an object of this invention to provide a carton for canned or bottled beverages, which carton is equipped with a waterproof liner extending for the full height of its side walls, the side walls being substantially higher than the containers to be shipped in the carton, and the space thereabove being occupied by a removable spacer or filler, so that upon opening of the carton and removal of the spacer or filler, ice may be packed in the carton above the cans or bottles to cool the same.

With the above and other objects in view, which will appear as the description proceeds, this invention resides in the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts substantially as hereinafter described and more particularly defined by the appended claim, it being understood that such changes in the precise embodiment of the hereindiselosed invention may be made as come within the scope of the claim.

The accompanying drawings illustrate one complete example of the physical embodiment of the invention constructed according to the best mode so far devised for the practical application of the principles thereof, and in which:

Figure 1 is a" perspective view of a carton of this invention having its waterproof liner in place therein and the spacer or filler lifted therefrom but SblOWIl in broken lines, portions of the carton being cut away to better illustrate the liner;

Figure 1a is a cross sectional view through the carton showing the same open but with the spacer or filler in place;

Patented Apr. 21, 1959 Figure 2 is a perspective. view of a blank from which the waterproof liner of this invention may be formed;

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the waterproof liner folded flat for storage and shipping; and

Figure 4 is a group perspective view of a carton with the liner shown in Figure 3 partially unfolded and ready to be inserted into the carton.

Referring now more particularly to the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters indicate like parts throughout the several views, the numeral 5 generally designates the carton of this invention, shown for simplicity as of the type adapted to be used for carrying beer or other beverage in cans 6, or other containers. As is conventional, the carton has a rectangular bottom wall 7 and two pairs of opposite upright side walls 8, 9 of equal height, each joined to one edge of the rectangular bottom wall. The opposite longitudinal side walls 8, of course, constitute the sides of the carton, while the opposite transverse side walls 9 comprise the ends of the carton.

Conventional closure flaps 10 are hinged to the upper edges of the longitudinal side walls. Each of the flaps 10, of course, spans substantially one-half the transverse dimension of the carton, so that conjointly, these flaps provide the top wall of the closed carton. The transverse side walls, or ends 9 of the carton, are also provided with closure flaps 11 which flatwise underlie the top wall forming flaps 10 when the carton is closed.

An important feature of the carton of this invention resides in the fact that beverage in the containers shipped in the carton may be cooled without removing the containers from the carton, by placing chunks of ice on the tops of the containers. For this purpose, the walls of the carton are preferably made substantially higher than the cans or other containers to be carried therein, and the carton is provided with a waterproof liner 4 to preclude the leakage of ice-Water from the carton. In other words, the composite carton, with its liner, affords a watertight vessel in which canned or bottled beverages may be cooled when mechanical refrigeration apparatus is not available. A readily removable spacer or filler 12 confined between the closure flaps and the tops of the containers in the carton holds the containers securely in place in the carton during shipping and handling. Of course, this spacer is taken out of the carton when it is opened for cooling of the containers therein.

The construction of the liner will be best understood by reference to Figures 2, 3 and 4, which show that the liner is formed from a one piece blank (see Figure 2). It is highly important that the blank be of a paper stock which is waterproof, and it is to be understood that the term paper as used herein refers to any suitable paperlike stock, including such material as waxed paper and cellophane.

Referring to the blank, it will be seen that it has a rectangular bottom wall panel 13 defined by pairs of longitudinal and transverse fold lines 14 and 15 respectively. Opposite side panels 16 extend outwardly from the fold lines 14, while opposite end panels 17 extend outwardly from the fold lines 15.

It is to be noted that the blank is not notched out directly adjacent to the corners of the bottom wall panel 13, but instead is provided with substantially square corner portions 18 integral with the adjacent ends of the side and end panels 16 and 17. The inner edges of these corner portions are defined by continuations of the transverse and longitudinal fold lines 14 and 15 which boun the bottom wall panel 13.

Each of the corner portions has a diagonal fold line 19 extending outwardly therethrough from the adjacent corner of the bottom wall panel, whereby the corner portion is divided into a pair of equal triangular portions 20, 21.

As the side and end wall panels are folded upwardly relative to the bottom panel, along fold lines 14 and 15, to form up the container liner, the corner portions 18 are folded inwardly along the diagonal fold lines and would normally project diagonally into the interior of the formed up liner. However, those triangular corner portions 21 which are adjacent to the side wall panels 16 are flatwise adhered to the latter by means of a suitable adhesive, which may be coated onto said triangular portions before the blank is formed up.

When the adhesive coated triangular portions 21 are adhered to their adjacent side wall panels, the partially formed up liner may be shipped and stored flat, with the end panels 17 flatwise overlying the bottom panel and the corner portions 18 flatwise overlying the side wall panels, as shown in Figure 3. When the liner is to be inserted into a carton, the adjacent free edges of the end panels 17 are drawn upwardly and away from one another, and the side wall panels 16 are thereby automatically drawn upwardly, as shown in Figure 4, to form up the liner for insertion into a carton.

Where the length of the side wall panels of the liner is less than twice the height of the walls, the two triangular portions 21 overlying each end wall panel will overlap, but one of them is preferably provided with a small notch 23 which clears the adjacent corner 24 of the other triangular portion, as may be readily seen in Figure 1.

It will be understood that the several wall forming panels of the liner are substantially equal in size to the inside dimensions of the corresponding carton walls.

With this construction it will be noted that the side walls of the liner extend continuously and uninterruptedly around the upright corners of the container. This follows from the fact that the diagonally folded square corner portions 18 of the liner extend upwardly at least to the tops of the side walls of both the liner and the carton. Consequently since the liner is made from waterproof stock, or from a blank that has had waterproofing material applied to one face thereof, the carton is completely watertight, and the chunks of ice may be placed upon the tops of the containers in the carton at picnics and the like to effectively cool the beverage in the containers without having ice water accumulating in the carton leak out of the corners of the carton.

The spacer 12 is preferably made from a single blank of relatively stiff paper board having a number of parallel scores along which it is folded to provide a pair of laterally adjacent fiat body portions 26 extending longitudinally for the full length of the carton and having their adjacent edges integrally connecting with the lower ends of the downwardly divergent legs of a central gable 27. Each of the body portions 26 has a width less than onehalf the width of the carton interior. Flanges 28 are bent up from the outer longitudinal edges of the body portions, and the tendency of the gable legs to spread apart causes opposite lateral forces to be exerted on the body portions by which their flanges are pressed substantially flatwise against the adjacent side walls of the waterproof liner to hold the upper portions thereof into engagement with the side walls of the carton. The flanges have a height equal to that of the gable but slightly less than the lengths of the gable legs, and the upper edges of the gable and flanges engage the underside of the carton closure flaps to thus hold the body portions 26 of the spacer flatwise clamped against the tops of the containers. Since the end closure flaps 11 lie beneath the side closure flaps 10, each of which have a width equal to half the width of the carton, the gable and side flanges preferably extend longitudinally of the carton so as to directly engage the undersides of the end Wall flaps 11 thus affording the best possible support for the top wall of the carton defined by the inwardly folded pairs of flaps and 11. Since both the flanges and the gable extend the full length of the carton, at its interior, they hold the upper portions of the adjacent liner walls flatwise against the carton end walls and also reinforce those portions of the carton end walls which extend above the beverage containers in the carton.

From the foregoing description taken together with the accompanying drawings, it will be readily apparent to those skilled in that art that this invention provides a package comprising a carton having a lower compartment in which a number of containers of beverage are carried and an upper compartment in which ice may be carried to cool the beverage, said upper compartment normally being occupied by a novel readily removable spacer which protects the beverage containers and reinforces the upper walls of the carton during shipment of the package.

What I claim as my invention is:

A beverage package, comprising: a carton with a waterproof liner, said carton having a rectangular bottom wall and pairs of opposite upright side and end Walls provided with closure flaps hinged to their upper edges and folded inwardly so that said flaps collectively define the top wall of the carton, the outer edges of the side wall flaps being continguous to one another along the longitudinal center line of the carton and the end wall flaps underlying the side wall flaps but having their outer edges spaced apart; beverage containers filling all but an upper portion of the carton, and having their tops disposed in a common plane spaced a distance beneath the top wall of the carton, said containers being contiguous to one another and to said liner to hold the adjacent portions of the liner against the side and end walls of the carton; and a removable one-piece spacer in said upper portion of the carton, confined between the tops of the containers and the top wall of the carton, said spacer comprising a pair of laterally adjacent substantially flat and coplanar body portions resting flatwise upon the tops of the containers and extending the full length of the carton interior to have their ends contiguous to the lined surfaces of the carton end walls, each of said body portions having a width less than one-half of the width of the carton at its interior, flanges bent up from the remote longitudinal edges of said body portions and having their outer edges engaged with the underside of the top wall, and a gable having downwardly divergent legs of slightly greater slant height than the flanges, the lower ends of said gable legs being joined to the adjacent marginal edges of the body portions, and said gable having a height equal to that of the flanges and having its apex engaged with the underside of the carton top wall along the longitudinal center line of the carton, the tendency of the gable legs to spread apart causing opposite lateral forces to be exerted on the body portions of the spacer to maintain the flanges on their remote edges pressed flatwise against the adjacent upper edge portions of the liner to hold the same flatwise against the carton side walls, and the ends of the gable and of the flanges being contiguous to the lined surfaces of the container end walls so as to hold the liner thereagainst at locations thereon above the level of the tops of the containers, said containers cooperating with the upper side wall portions of the carton and with the components of the spacer to provide firm support for the top Wall of the carton, and the spacer cooperating with the carton top wall to confine the containers in the lower portion of the carton.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

